Eat Comfy, Go Lightly

This is my absolute favorite recipe for chili.  It’s so filling, so healthy, and I promise you won’t miss the meat!

Portobello mushrooms, cashews (sounds strange, but they’re great in this!) and amazing spices make this chili stand out.  The beans and cashews add protein, iron and zinc.  It’s a complete meal all by itself, but it’s great with cornbread (whole -wheat cornbread recipe below) or some brown rice.  It’s perfect for a cold night — especially a cold super bowl Sunday night!  Have fun!

Portobello Mushroom Vegetarian Chili

1 yellow onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 red pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cerrano (or other mild chili) peppers

32 oz. crushed or diced tomatoes

3 portobello mushroom caps, sliced and cut into 1″ pieces

1 15 oz. can black beans

1 15 oz. can red kidney beans

3 tbsp. tomato paste

1/2 cup cashew nuts

1 cup vegetable stock

2 tbsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. curry powder

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. tumeric

1 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tsp. salt, plus extra

1/2 tsp. pepper, plus extra

non-stick cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 375.  Place the chili peppers in the oven for 10 minutes, until skins begin to blacken and blister.  Once cooled, cut them in half, remove seeds and veins, and dice.

Spray a large pot with nonstick cooking spray.  Add onion, carrot, peppers and garlic to the pot.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook over medium heat about 7 minutes until all vegetables have softened.  Add the mushrooms to the pot and cook an additional 5-7 minutes until vegetables are soft and beginning to brown.

Add the chili powder, curry, tumeric, cumin, paprika and cayenne.  Coat all of the vegetables with the spices and stir to combine.

Add in the crushed tomatoes, vegetable stock and cashews.  Stir well.  Season with salt and pepper.

Bring the chili to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and allow chili to simmer 40 minutes.  Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with nonfat sour cream/yogurt, sliced avocado, fresh parsley, and cornbread.

Whole Wheat Cornbread

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

1 cup nonfat plain yogurt

2 eggs, beaten

1 chopped jalapeno pepper (optional)

nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400.

Spray an 8×8″ baking dish with nonstick spray.

Combine all ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl.  Pour into prepared baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes, until top is golden brown.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 4:16 pm and is filed under American, Mexican, Our Favorites!, Tali, cooking and recipes, vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.